Helping Your Family Thrive: A Practical Guide to Parenting with Positive Behavior Support

This practical guide teaches parents to use positive behavior support (PBS) to structure their homes and promote desired behavior. It guides readers through a 5-step approach to manage family life so that all family members thrive: 1) assessing strengths, challenges, and needs, 2) creating a family vision and expectations, 3) arranging the home environment, 4) teaching behavioral expectations, and 5) monitoring outcomes and problem-solving. Concrete, research-based examples, exercises, downloadable worksheets, and chapter-long case studies walk parents through every step of the process.

Meme Hieneman, Ph.D., BCBA, Consultant with Positive Behavior Support Applications, Faculty Member at Purdue University Global, and President of the Home and Community Positive Behavior Support Network, Palm Harbor, Florida.
Meme is a consultant, researcher, educator, and advocate working with organizations that support children with significant behavioral challenges and providing information and resources through teaching and nonprofit work. She has been married for over 30 years and has two young adult sons. Meme has a Ph.D. in Special Education and is certified as a behavior analyst. She has published a variety of articles, chapters, and three books. She developed a comprehensive video and training package on PBS for parents of children with autism and other developmental disabilities and is a regular contributor to Parenting Special Needs Magazine.
Meme has worked with children with severe behavioral challenges and their families for over 30 years. She was a residential program manager, behavior specialist for a school district, staff member for a program assisting families and professionals of children with autism, adjunct instructor at USF, director of a state-wide PBS project helping schools to implement proactive, evidence-based interventions, co-training coordinator for the National Research and Training Center on PBS, research director of the Positive Family Intervention Project at USF, director and developer of the ABA and autism programs at All Children’s Hospital, and Co-Principal Investigator of a National Institute on Health-research study focused on behavioral parent education. She currently teaches Masters’ level courses in applied behavior analysis, consults with agencies that provide family-focused behavioral support, and leads a nonprofit organization called the Home and Community Positive Behavior Support Network (https://hcpbs.org/).

Sarah Fefer, Ph.D., BCBA, Associate Professor of School Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Student Development, School Psychology program.
            Sarah is a researcher, trainer, behavior analyst, and systems consultant supporting children, youth, families, and schools in meeting the needs of students with challenging behavior. Sarah has worked in the area of Positive Behavior Supports since 2012 when she completed an advanced practicum at All Children’s Hospital. Her area of emphasis during her doctoral training in School Psychology at the University of South Florida was family-focused behavioral interventions. Under the supervision of Meme Hieneman, Sarah delivered and evaluated the outcomes of informational workshops and intensive positive behavior support to families experiencing a wide range of challenging child behavior. After her graduate training, Sarah moved to Massachusetts and worked as a doctoral intern in specialized schools for individuals with Brain Injuries and Autism Spectrum Disorders. There, she provided training in proactive, positive behavioral intervention to teachers, families, and residential staff. Sarah’s applied experiences with youth and families across school, hospital, and clinic settings contribute to her current work focused on family-focused strategies as the key to student success.
            Sarah is now an Associate Professor of School Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she has trained graduate students and engaged in research and service delivery related to positive behavior support for families since 2013. Her most recent project focused on providing family education through schools, teaching parents to prevent and manage challenging behavior at home. This project involves implementing multiple types of family education using a multi-tiered model, with some proactive strategies available for all families with children in the school and more intensive education offered to families of students with more significant challenging behaviors.

Missy Sieders. Parent Advisor at PEAK Parent Training and Information Center in Colorado, Certified Nurse’s Aide for daughter who experiences an intellectual disability, Facilitator for Parents Encouraging Parents Conferences by the Colorado Department of Education.
Missy is a Parent Advisor at PEAK Parent Center, consulting with families, service providers, and educators on inclusive education practices for students with disabilities. She designs and delivers online and live training sessions for families and educators in areas such as effective communications and advocacy skills, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Accommodations and Modifications, Developing Friendships, and IEP Facilitation.  She contributes to the PEAK Parent Center Blog and is a certified IEP Facilitator. She is also Certified Nurses Aid for her daughter. She was a Colorado Special Education Advisory Committee member for 7 years and has served on numerous Advisory Committees for the Colorado Department of Education’s Exceptional Student Services Unit.  Missy graduated with high honors from Michigan State University with a Bachelor of Science in industrial engineering.  She has completed post-graduate work in the field of Human Resource Development at Webster University.

Shane Isley, M.S., BCBA, Consultant with the Performance Thinking Network, and Founder/Director of W.C. Behavioural Consultants, Ltd (WCB).
 Shane is an entrepreneur, organizational performance consultant, and behavior analyst who earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in behavior analysis from the University of North Texas. After graduate school, Shane moved back to the Pacific Northwest with his heart set on utilizing behavioral science to make socially significant changes in the places where people spend the most of their time: home and work. In 2007, he founded West Coast Behavioral Consultants, which housed two divisions: Optimal and Blueprints. Optimal focused on performance improvement within organizations. Blueprints focused on intensive family-centered intervention for families with children at risk of out-of-home placement due to their severe challenging behavior. In 2010, Shane founded a sister company in Vancouver, BC, Canada (W.C. Behavioural Consultants).
Applying his expertise in positive behavior support to children and families' needs, Shane and his team of highly skilled practitioners collaborated closely with Dr. Hieneman to build a rigorous family-centered behavioral intervention program, including a comprehensive parenting program, Family Foundations©. Blueprints gained a reputation for producing transformational change and keeping children in their homes rather than out-of-home placements. Intending to bring these services to even more families, in 2015, Shane merged with a multi-site allied health services agency in Puget Sound, bringing Blueprints with him to his new partnership. Blueprints expanded its offerings by adding a preschool program, an early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI), and psychological services.
With twenty years of specialized experience and expertise in supporting families with children with significant behavioral challenges, Shane now consults with behavioral health agencies to establish/improve and sustain quality clinical practices, systems, and tools.